Let's Pretend It's Day 5 - 12 Days of Ornaments

Yeah, ummm okay. Let's just pretend today is December 5th, and I'll be sharing the 5th day of ornaments. I know its not the 5th but Sunday got away from me with church, kids portrait sitting with grandparents, little one caroling with her singing group and the teen running off to sub-work at Game Stop. Busy hectic. I found myself working on my ornament late at night, catching up on Amazing Race. At 11:45 pm I conceded that I would not get my ornament done in time to post, so I resolved to 'post it tomorrow'. Well, tomorrow turned into 2 days, then 2 days of migraines and here I sit on the 9th of December. But you don't really care, lonely blog, what day I post to you, do you? Only, that I visit and post!  So here goes.

But just to appease the blog visitors, I have a special bonus looky-loo show-in-tell for you! After the ornament... 

(P.S. This is not the original day 5 ornament. I still did not finish that one. So you're saved from handsewing skills for the moment.)

OH WAIT! Let me tell you about my evening (it has to do with the ornament.) I have a nice group of local friends who I rarely see but are still my good friends. And whenever we get together there is no awkwardness, we pick up where we left off last time we were together. What makes them so special in my heart is, they're all homeschoolers and Christian women. They were the people who helped me on this journey of homeschooling and every year, even though I've been homeschooling for 10 years now, they patiently answer all my hairbrained questions about the subject. They are a living indispensable fountain of info, that I so desperately need. They are also all artists in their own ways. And that is what makes them even more dear to my heart. 

Anyway, I planned a quick Christmas get together since I had not seen most of them in months. We met at a local restaurant and became fast friends with the perky waitress! We exchanged handmade Christmas ornaments. The one below went to my good friend Trisha. The ornament from Day 4 went to my other good friend, Rhonda (in case you cared what I was doing with my creations.)

NOEL ORNAMENT

(There are no close up step by step pics, since I was working furiously to finish this tonight before my party. It's pretty easy though.)

Supplies: 

scrap of wool

metal letters

brads

lace scrap

sequin trim

collage image (I used one from Altered Pages)

old book page

shimmery spray

gel pen

gaudy hot pink (or whatever color) plasticy leaf piece

sewing machine

This is super simple!

1 - Cut out a rectangle of wool. Could also use felt. I didn't measure but mine was a bit bigger than an ATC's 2 1/2 x3 1/2" size.

2 - Punch 2 holes in the top left and right parts to string your hanger through.

3 - Cut a 5-6" piece of sequin trim (or any ribbon will do) and thread through the holes from the back to front. I lightly glued them down on front to hold them in place for the next step.

4 - Take a piece of lace and run it through the sewing machine, gathering it like I showed you on this initial post as well as this ornament post. Easy peasy.

5 - Take gathered lace, layer over wool (hiding ends of sequin trim) and sew a zig zag all the way across.

6 - Tear a piece of the dictionary paper to fit the middle of the ornament and  spray with shimmery ink . Glue down, centered.

7 - Chose your favorite collage image and glue down in the upper center of the dictionary page.

8 - Draw around the image with a regular or gel pen.

9 - Pick out letters to spell a word (I used the letters for NOEL.) Line up where you want them to lay and put a dot through the holes at the top (if yours do not have holes, just add glue to the backs and adhere, skipping the use of the brads.)

10 - Use the brads to attach the metal letters.
11, Cut off a piece of the sparkly leaves and sew to the collage with the zig zag on the sewing machine. 

This is a great way to use up fabric scraps. If your scraps are thinner, just glue to a piece of cardboard first.

Now for the show-n-tell (all images are from Altered Pages.) I couldn't just take my ornaments to the party wrapped in anything plain. Oh no! Plus the bags I used were blue. That didn't seem very Christmasy to me. So I gussied them up. 

Three cheers for gussying! I thought they came out nicely! And just using regular ole' supplies. I did emboss the bags before making the collages for the fronts and then gluing said collages down (stamped used for embossing was from RedLeadPaperworks.com.) I think my friends liked them...

Okay, that's it for today. Cross your fingers, I get another post up tomorrow. I do have another ornament I finished waiting it the wings!